People are very critical about long COVID/ME/CFS patients not being on diets and it's probably the most fucking annoying ableist thing we have to deal with on a regular basis that people think is totally fine or even helpful.
Preparing homemade food takes a ton of energy. Preparing homemade food to fit a diet takes even more energy and is expensive. Carnivore is one of the most common recommendations and, aside from dieticians practically screaming about how dangerous it is due to the complete lack of vitamins, meat is expensive. Even high protein, low carb diets that aren't as strict still require you to spend quite a bit on protein. Diets like anti-inflammatory, mediterranean, low fodmap, and others that restrict certain types of food are often prohibitively complicated, and many times advice is conflicted on whether things are ok to eat and in what amount. The vast majority of restrictive diets don't come with easy-to-prepare meals unless you have a ton of money to drop on expensive meal kits.
And most importantly, for some of us food is all we have left. Being closed inside for 90% of your life is incredibly boring in a way that's hard to describe. I spend 8-10 hours a day in the same place doing the same things because they're all I can do. Eating something interesting is pretty much the only way I get to add enrichment to my life. Diet is not a cure for us, it only provides mild symptom relief if any. It's just not worth giving up the small sliver of joy that is an "unhealthy" meal when it's not going to actually result in us regaining the ability to do other things that bring us joy.
❌If you give dieting advice on this post I will block you. You're annoying and you're missing the point.❌
